DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15576/ASP.FC/2019.18.3.19 http://acta.urk.edu.pl/pl ISSN 1644-0765
O R I G I N A L PA P E R Accepted: 25.08.2019
THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF IRRIGATION SYSTEM
FOR INCREASING THE WATER RESOURCES:
THE CASE OF THE NIDA RIVER VALLEY
Łukasz Borek
1, Karolina Drymajło
21 Department of Land Reclamation and Environmental Development, Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Land Surveying, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Al. Mickiewicza 24/28, 30–059 Krakow
2 Teldraft Sp. z.o.o. – engineering activities and technical consulting
ABSTRACT Aim of the study
This paper presents the role and importance of the gravity-fed irrigation system for increasing the soil water resources and surface retention in sandy alluvial soils.
Material and methods
The research was conducted on the Kopernia object (64.2 ha) within the Nida River Valley (Pińczów County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship) focused on the sub-irrigation systems formed in the second half of the 20th cen-tury. In order to identify the changes in soil water retention at the object, certain characteristics of soil profile were measured, such as gravitational water and volumetric water content in alluvial soil at different depths of groundwater table position. For determining surface retention the archival materials (technical project) as well as field tests e.g. ditch inventorisation, soil samples collection, were used. Additionally, in laboratory, the selected physical and water properties of alluvial soils were determined.
Results and conclusions
On the basis of both the inventorisation of ditches and hydrotechnical constructions as well as field and labo-ratory tests, it was shown that during the proper operation of the irrigation system, water can be stored in the soil profile in the amount from 42 115.2 m3 to 62 916 m3, with 10 821 m3 of water in the ditches as a result of
surface retention. Some of irrigation systems could be used to expand wetlands, also to increase small water retention. However, such changes would require large financial contributions and time to carry out these adjustments to current water policy and climate change.
Keywords: climate change, surface retention, soil water resources, open ditches, irrigation system
INTRODUCTION
The increasing frequency of droughts draws more at-tention to rational management of water in agroeco-systems. One of the methods of water retention in the agricultural space is its accumulation in open ditches
and canals. The gravity-fed irrigation systems and hy-drotechnical structures are one of the most common elements of technical infrastructure that can be found in rural areas in Poland, Europe and other parts of the world. They play a significant role in improving ag-ricultural production, biodiversity, shaping the
land-scape and the hydrological cycle of small rural catch-ment (Leibundgut and Kohn, 2014a, b; Borek and Ostrowski, 2014; Carlson et al., 2019).
According to the Polish Water Law from 20th June 2017 water facilities are defined as: „devices or struc-tures for the development of water resources and the use of these resources, including: a) devices or damming structures, flood protection and regulation structures, and also canals and ditches” (DZ.U. z 2017 poz. 1566).
Irrigation systems are not the latest trend in agricul-ture. Archaeological research, carried out in all around the world, shows that the development of hydrotech-nical ideas is dated several thousand years B.C. Irri-gation systems were used in ancient times, inter alia, in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, Peru and Sri Lanka, having a positive impact on the development of settlements and agriculture (Meijer, 2006; Ertsen, 2010; Mays, 2010; Zaghloul et al., 2013).
Currently, the biggest problem of water manage-ment, apart from climate change, is the negligence of drainage and irrigation infrastructure due to lack of proper operation and maintenance. Decapitalised ditches, canals and weirs cause changes in the ecosys-tems and the loss of water, resources of which shrink year after year (Łabędzki, 2007). Considering ratio-nal water management in the light of apparent climate change, attention should be paid to the modernization and automation of existing and newly designed irriga-tion and drainage systems (Lecina et al., 2010; Lozano et al., 2010; Alarcón et al., 2015; Wahlin and Zimbel-man, 2017; Vassena et al., 2012).
Gravity irrigation systems were mainly used for supplying water to permanent grassland, which occupy over 3 billion hectares of land on our planet, account-ing for slightly more than 23% of land areas (Burczyk et al., 2018). In Poland, meadows and pastures consti-tute about 10% of the country’s area and over 20% of agricultural land (GUS, 2017). These are mainly areas of rivers, forests or wetlands. Drainage or irrigation of arable lands allows increasing crops even twice (Pier-zgalski, 1990). A distinctive feature of the Nida River Valley is the dense network of drainage and irrigation ditches and channels supplying water to permanent grasslands. The use of meadows in the Nida Valley in the 20th century was very intense – cattle and horses were most commonly kept (in Michałów there is one of the largest stud of Arabian horses in Poland). In the
course of time interest of irrigation dropped for several years. In the Nida River Valley a lot of the remains of old irrigation systems were found, covering large area. Still, these systems have an impact on the wetness of soil and biodiversity of meadows. This area’s unique qualities are evidenced by the fact that part of the Nida Valley it has been included in the Natura 2000 nature conservation programme.
Under the EU LIFE+ programme, which started in spring 2019, in the middle parts of Nida River’s basin efforts were being made to create a stable restoration of the environmental and biodiversity. In particular, this involves rebuilding irrigation infrastructures for rein-troducing freshwater turtles, aquatic birds and newts.
The aim of the work was to assess the possibili-ty of increasing water retention in soil on the basis of constant water characteristics of the soil profile, and also of surface retention based on the design and pres-ent parameters of ditches on the Kopernia object. The hypothesis was that poor technical condition of the ir-rigation infrastructure due to the lack of maintenance and exploitation has an impact on reduction of soil and surface retention.
MATERIALS AND METHODS Description of study area
The irrigation system Nida–Pińczów extends through alluvial soils located in the Nida River Valley that consists of permanent grasslands in Pińczów County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Poland). The average alti-tude of the object is between 180.00 and 190.00 m a.s.l. The whole compound includes four objects – Pińczów, Michałów, Kopernia and Skrzypiów, with the total area of 407 hectares. The Nida River is a left-bank tributary of the Vistula River with the length of 151.2 km and a total catchment area of 3865.4 km2, hydrographically
is a 2nd class watercourse. The Nida River is situated in the European Watershed and is part of the catchment area of the Baltic Sea. This river is formed by joining together of the White Nida and the Black Nida near Chęciny town. It is a typical lowland river with a very low slope. It has a wide floodplain terrace covered with meadows. In the Nida River basin we can find many ditches and irrigation canals. It is one of the warmest Polish rivers. The summer water temperature reaches 27°C (Łajczak, 2006, Łapuszek, 2011).
According to the geographical division by Kond-racki (2011), the irrigation system is situated in the Polish Upland province (34), in the macroregion of the Niecka Nidziańska (342.2) and in the mesoregion of the Nida Valley (342.25).
The scope of research
• Analysis of the project documentation, such as sit-uation and elevation plan at a scale of 1 : 10 000 and profiles of ditches. The Kopernia object with an area 64.2 hectares was selected for detailed analysis and research.
• Inventorisation of 12 irrigation ditches carried out on 19th September 2017 and 23rd April 2018. Ditch inspections were conducted with a tape measure and a level staff. At the beginning and end of each ditch, the following parameters were
determined: bottom width (b) and height of the canal (h).
• Soil samples collected on 20th April 2018 – On the Kopernia object three measurements points were installed (P.1, P.2 and P.3), which were located be-tween ditches (in the middle of field) and one point was installed directly in the bottom of the ditch No. R-23 (D.I). Undistarbed soil samples were taken from a depth of 15 cm and 35 cm using Kopecky’s cylinders (in 3 replications) – only samples from bottom of the ditch No. R-23 from layer of 60 cm were taken. Also, approximately 1 kg of disturbed soil was extracted to examine soil texture, and oth-er laboratory analysis was undoth-ertaken. In one case, using hole digger, probing was conducted to a depth of 150 cm, during which ground water at a depth of about 1.00 m below the surface was found.
Fig. 1. Location of irrigation system with measurement points; Explanations: P.1–P.3 – location of measurements points in
• Laboratory analysis – from soil samples that were collected, the selected physical properties were determined in accordance with the general methodologies stated in Mocek and Drzymała (2010): soil texture by the Bouyoucose–Casa-grande areometric method modified by Prószyńs-ki was specified (PN–R–04032:1998). The con-tent of particle size classes (sand, 2.0–0.05 mm; silt, 0.05–0.002 mm; clay, < 0.002 mm) was de-termined according to the USDA classification (Soil Survey Staff 1999); particle density by the pycnometer method assumed as mean density of the mineral grains of the soil; soil bulk density by the gravimetric method in Kopecky’s cylinders (100 cm3) – as the mass of dry soil per volume.
The weight of this soil core is then determined after drying in an oven at 105°C for about 18–24 hours; soil moisture by the gravimetric method in Kopecky’s cylinders (100 cm3) – as the ratio of
the amount of water in the soil sample to the dry weight of the soil, after drying in an oven at 105°C for about 18–24 hours; water storage in layer – as soil moisture and thickness of the soil layer (cm), assuming that the first layer is thickness at 10 cm of depth and second layer at 25 cm. On the basis of results, total porosity was calculated from bulk density and particle density.
• Determination of the soil water retention – soil water retention was calculated based on ground-water table fluctuations (h1 = 1.00 m – intial
wa-ter level, h2 = 0,70 m – maximum draining
stan-dard, h3 = 0,50 m – minimum draining standard
and h4 = 0,00 m – ground level), and also
granu-lometric composition, in particular, the percentage of fraction below 0.02 mm. For this purpose, the following water characteristics of the soil profile were used (Somorowski, 1971):
– net irrigation dose – it is the difference between field capacity at minimum groundwater table and the water resources at maximum ground-water table (at permanent wilting point):
dn = VWhmax – GWhmin [mm] (1)
where:
VWhmax – volumetric water content at maximum groundwater table,
GWhmin – gravitational water at minimum ground-water table.
– Gravitational water (GW) refers to the amount of water held by the soil between saturation and field capacity. It is free water moving through soil by the force of gravity:
GW = a · hmin1,73 [mm]
– The volumetric water content (VW) is the total amount of water held in a given soil volume at a given time. It includes all water that may be present including gravitational and available water content:
VW = b · hmax1,43 [mm]
where:
hmin – minimum groundwater level [m],
hmax – maximum groundwater level [m],
a and b – empirical coefficients depending on the
percentage content of fraction below 0.02 mm in the soil. The values speci-fied are taken from the table 1.
Table 1. Values of empirical coefficients
Coefficients The percentage of fraction below 0.02 mm 1 5 10 15 20 35 50 60 a 273 128 92 76 66 51 43 40 b 290 168 133 116 105 87 77 73
Calculation of the change in soil retention for dif-ferent variants of groundwater level:
– increase in soil retention as a result of increasing the groundwater table by Δh1-2 from the level h1 to h2:
dn1 = Vh1 – Qh2 [mm]
– increase in soil retention as a result of increasing the groundwater table by Δh1–3 from level h1 to h3:
dn2 = Vh1 – Qh3 [mm]
– increase in soil retention as a result of increasing the groundwater table by Δh1-4 from level h1 to h4:
dn3 = Vh1 – Qh4 [mm]
• determination of the surface retention of the object – the calculation of the water volume (V) available for storage in ditches (in m3) was made based on
the scheme (see: Fig. 2) and formula:
V = A ∙ L [m3]
where:
A – surface of cross-section calculated from for-mula A = b ∙ h + m ∙ h2 [m2],
L – length of the ditch [m]
Statistical analysis
The data set consisted of analytical results of soil sam-ples collected at the four soil measurement points lo-cated in the Nida River Valley during field tests (20th April 2018). Procedures provided by the program
Sta-tistica PL version 12.5 with a sample size of n = 21
were used for statistical analysis. For each analysed physical and water parameters of soil, basic descrip-tive statistics such as minimum and maximum values, arithmetic mean, median, standard deviation (SD) and coefficient of variation (CV) were computed.
RESULTS
Design assumptions and the current status of the irrigation system
As shown in table 2, ditches are in poor condition, it is clear especially in trapezoidal parameters of the cross-sections, such as bottom width (b) and height (h). As is apparent from the draft, the total length of 12 ditches is 7 589 meters. In most cases ditches had a smaller height than in the technical proj-ect, because of 0.17 m mud on mean was observed at the bottom of ditches. The ditch bottoms and the banks are covered with reeds, grass, bushes, and short trees (see: Fig. 3). The bottom width of each ditch, accord-ing to the project was 0.5 m, but now ranges from 0.35 to 1.05 m. Changes in trapezoidal cross-section affect the surfaces and volumes of ditches.
Weirs in ditches that had the simplest form consisted of a wall of concrete with a rectangular opening with fixed dimensions (0.60 m) cut in its edge (see: Fig. 4).
Soil characteristics
As shown in table 3, the alluvial soils in the Nida Riv-er Valley are hetRiv-erogeneous in tRiv-erms of texture. Sand was the dominant texture in soil (mean of 68.6%). Soil color was 10Y 2/1 in the topsoil, while at depth of 35 cm the color changed to 5Y 5/1 in point No P.3 and 10Y 5/1 in points No P.1 and P.2. The gran-ulometric composition of the measurement points was classified into to four soil texture groups (acc. to USDA) as: sandy loam, sand, clay loam and loamy sand. The highest CV was in clay (71.8%). Sand con-tent in the measurement points was between 42 and 96%, silt content between 2 and 29%, and clay con-tent between 2 and 65%. According to the Polsish Soil Classification (PTG, 2011), World Reference Base for Soil Resources – IUSS Working Group WRB (2006) and USDA soil taxonomy (Soil Survey Staff 1999), examined soil were classified as: Order 7. Cherno-zemic soils (Polish: Gleby czarnoziemne; WRB: Chernozems, Phaeozems; ST: Mollisols – Aquolls, Udolls), Type 7.4. “Chernoziemic fluvisols” (Polish: Mady czarnoziemne; WRB: Mollic Fluvisol, Endo-fluvic Phaeozem; ST: Fluvaquentic Endoaquolls) and Type 7.6 “Mucky soils” (Polish: Gleby murszaste; WRB: Mollic or Umbric Gleysol; ST: Mollic or His-tic Endoaquolls).
Explanations:
B – top width of the canal/ditch [m],
b – bottom width [m],
h – height of the canal/ditch [m],
h1 – depth of the water in the canal/ditch [m],
w – side slope of the canal/ditch 1:m
It was assumed that the weirs damming was measured from ground level.
The major physical properties of the studied soils are presented in Table 4. Mean particle density was 2.48 g ∙ cm–3. Higher values in the second layers
were observed. According to coefficient of variation (CV), the behaviour in the soil can be considered as a low variability. Bulk density was in range 0.85– –1.81 g ∙ cm–3 and predominantly increasing with a
depth and yielding a very high value for total porosity from 28.74% to 63.20%. Mean soil moisture values
was 36.08% v/v. In points No P.1 and P.2 higher val-ues of soil moisture were observed in topsoil than in subsoil, while in point No P.3 it was the opposite. The high values of water storage ranged 19.71–91.70 mm in soil. Mean organic matter content, about 3.37%, was highest in top layers and decreasing with depth. According to coefficient of variation (CV), the be-haviour in the soil can be considered as a high vari-ability.
Fig. 3. Bushes and grass in the ditch (Photo by Łukasz Borek). Fig. 4. A weir in the ditch (Photo by Łukasz Borek). Table 2. Designed and current parameters of ditches in the Kopernia object
No. of ditches
L Designed parameters of the cross-sections Current parameters of the cross-sections
b h 1 : m A V b h 1 : m A V [m] [m] [m] [-] [m2] [m3] [m] [m] [-] [m2] [m3] R–12 420 0.5 0.93 1.5 1.76 739 0.60 0.58 1.5 0.85 357 R–13 440 0.5 0.71 1.11 488 0.68 0.85 1.66 730 R–14 510 0.5 0.71 1.11 566 0.84 0.70 1.32 673 R–15 544 0.5 0.63 0.91 495 1.05 0.59 1.14 620 R–16 600 0.5 0.74 1.19 714 0.80 0.67 1.21 726 R–17 656 0.5 0.73 1.16 761 0.69 0.72 1.27 833 R–18 620 0.5 0.55 0.73 453 0.62 0.88 1.71 1060 R–19 540 0.5 0.97 1.90 1026 0.48 0.47 0.56 302 R–20 425 0.5 0.76 1.25 531 0.48 0.48 0.58 247 R–21 408 0.5 0.73 1.16 473 0.35 0.28 0.22 90 R–22 410 0.5 0.83 1.45 595 0.70 0.53 0.79 324 R–23 340 0.5 0.65 0.96 326 0.60 0.46 0.59 201 R–B 1676 0.5 1.05 2.18 3654 0.65 0.58 0.88 1478 Σ 7 589 10 821 7 641
Table 3. Granulometric composition of soils with basic descriptive statistics No. of measurement points Depth [cm] Soil texture
Soil particle percentage (%) The fraction particles below diameter of 0.02 mm sand 2.0–0.05 mm 0.05–0.002 mmsilt < 0.002 mmclay P.1 10 Sandy loam 58 23 19 34 35 Sandy loam 73 14 13 37 P.2 10 Sandy loam 78 14 8 23 35 Sand 96 2 2 19 P.3 10 Clay loam 42 25 33 3 35 Loamy sand 80 13 7 52 D.1 10 Sandy loam 53 29 18 11
Basic descriptive statistics
Index value: Minimum 42.0 2.0 2.0 3.0 Maksimum 96.0 29.0 33.0 52.0 Mean 68.6 17.1 14.3 25.6 Median 73.0 14.0 13.0 23.0 SD 18.5 9.2 10.3 16.7 CV (%) 27.0 53.4 71.8 65.3
Table 4. Selected physical and water properties of soils with basic descriptive statistics
No. of measurement
points
Depth Mean particle density bulk densityMean total porosityMean actual Mean moisture Mean water storage Mean soil organic matter [cm] [g · cm–3] [% v/v] [mm] [%] P.1 10 2.36 1.05 55.57 38.61 38.61 4.9 35 2.52 1.35 46.43 30.99 77.46 2.4 P.2 10 2.48 1.12 55.03 28.31 28.31 8.6 35 2.62 1.62 37.96 14.59 36.48 2.7 P.3 10 2.30 0.88 61.74 57.92 57.92 3.6 35 2.62 1.80 31.34 33.73 84.32 0.4 D.1 10 2.46 0.96 60.79 48.44 48.44 2.8
Basic descriptive statistics
Index value: Minimum 2.17 0.85 28.74 7.88 19.71 0.24 Maximum 2.62 1.86 63.20 59.26 91.70 8.69 Mean 2.48 1.25 49.80 36.08 53.07 3.37 Median 2.49 1.11 54.00 33.03 53.37 2.81 SD 0.13 0.33 11.30 13.90 22.08 2.22 CV 5.29 26.57 22.69 38.53 41.61 65.91
Soil water retention
Evaluation of the soil water retention balance in an alluvial floodplain with a shallow groundwater table was shown in table 5 and Figure 5. A system of ca-nals and weirs allows it to increase or decrease the water level in a network of ditches and thereby con-trol the water table. For the fraction particles below diameter of 0.02 mm at the mean level of 25.6% (see: Table 3) the values of empirical coefficients a and b were interpolated at 60 and 98%, respectively. For medium soils (e.g. sandy loam), the minimum stan-dard of drainage is 0.50 m and maximum stanstan-dard of drainage is 0.70 m (Ostromęcki, 1973). Based on own calculations for sub-irrigation systems with variable groundwater level it was found that when the groundwater table was raised from 1.00 m to 0.70 m (Δh1–2 = 0.30 m), water volume corresponding
to the net irrigation dose dn1 = 65.6 mm would be
supplied to the soil. The surface of 1 hectare gives the possibility of storage of 656 m3 of water in the
soil. As a result of raising the groundwater table from
Fig. 5. Graph of soil water characteristics with shallow groundwater table: a) three-phase soil profile; b) water resources of the soil profile at different groundwater tables
Table 5. Changes in soil retention at various levels of the
water table High water table Empirical coefficients gravita- tional water volumetric water content
The size of nett irrigation dose with variable water level hz a b GV VW dn1 dn2 dn3 [m] [–] [mm] [mm] 0.00 60 98 0.0 0.0 98.0 0.10 1.1 3.6 0.20 3.7 9.8 0.30 7.5 17.5 0.40 12.3 26.4 0.50 18.1 36.4 79.9 0.60 24.8 47.2 0.70 32.4 58.8 65.6 0.80 40.8 71.2 0.90 50.0 84.3 1.00 60.0 98.0
the level of 1.00 m to 0.50 m (Δh1–3 = 0.50 m), water
volume corresponding to the net irrigation dose dn2 =
79.9 mm would be supplied to the soil. The surface of 1 hectare gives the possibility of storage of 799 m3
of water in the soil. If weirs will be completely filled (water table = ground level, Δh1–4), water volume cor-responding to the net irrigation dose dn3 = 98.0 mm would be supplied to the soil, creating a potential to storage of 980 m3 water per hectare.
Surface retention of water
On the basis of table 2, surface retention by the irri-gated object was estimated. The research shows that if ditches and weirs were kept in good condition, 10 821 m3 of water could be retained at the Kopernia
object.
DISCUSSION
The general condition of ditches and weirs in the Nida River Valley was unacceptable. The reason for such a state is lack of proper maintenance and conservation of irrigation network. There are more similar examples. Łabędzki (2015) reported decreased interest in utiliza-tion of water facilities and the cessautiliza-tion of irrigautiliza-tion system maintaining and conservation, which has a neg-ative impact on the wetlands in the Noteć River val-ley. Iran Abbasi et al. (2015) noted that development of modern irrigation and drainage networks is one of effective strategies of preventing water losses and op-timal usage of water resources in agricultural section. On the other hand, recent studies have shown that most of the existing networks, which have been construct-ed with huge costs, meet various social and technical obstacles. Akkuzu et al. (2008) indicates that main-tenance of the Menemen irrigation system in Turkey is insufficient and suggested that farmers who benefit from the system should be given a more active role in maintenance work, and most importantly, that the insti-tutions responsible for maintenance should be support-ed financially in these activities. Chandran and Ambili (2016) also argue that better maintenance of irrigation systems affect the efficiency of water management and it will be only possible with the participation of farmers. Very worrying phenomenon is water loss by technical irrigation devices totalling about 2% annually (Nyc and Pokładek, 2008). Permanent grasslands have
the ability to save water and thus play an important role in the storage of soil organic matter and (Burczyk et al., 2018).
The examined alluvial soils in the Nida River Valley are very specific and diverse in terms of tex-ture (Iqbal et al., 2005; Bullinger-Weber et al., 2007, Borek and Bogdał, 2018) and showed high sand con-tent (Roj-Rojewski and Walasek, 2013). This feature may be related to the high mean organic matter con-tent about 3.37% (Rawls et al., 2003; Rubio and Poya-tos, 2012). Dwevedi et al. (2017) noticed that alluvial soil has the highest productivity with respect to other soils, because it requires the least water due to its high porosity. Water dynamics in soil profile are governed by many factors that change vertically with depth and temporally in response to climate (O’Geen, 2013; Grzywna, 2012).
One of the possibilities of water storage in ru-ral areas is soil and surface retention. This could be organised, for example, propering operation and maintenance of irrigation systems (Mioduszewski, 2014; Szpikowski et al., 2015). On the other hand, gravity-fed surface irrigation systems has garnered increasing attention at the political and bureaucratic levels due to frequent criticisms of its postulated low efficiency and high water wastage (Masseroni et al., 2017). On the Kopernia irrigated object with the area of 64.2 hectares, water volume from 42 115.2 m3 to
62 916 m3 can be stored in the soil profile, and in
addition, in ditches 10 821 m3 of water through
sur-face retention. Increasing the small retention of parts of waters run-off into the sea will increase water re-sources in Poland, where it is estimated that from 45 to 70 km3 of water outflows into the Baltic Sea
(Małecki and Gołębiak, 2012).
CONCLUSIONS
This paper examined soil water retention and surface retention in open irrigation ditches by using specific relationship between gravitational water and volumet-ric water content in soil. Through the measurements it was determined that capillary seepage from ditch-es providditch-es an important contribution to soil water retention. The results of calculations show that in a soil profile we can store from 65.6 mm to 98.0 mm of water for a various combination of groundwater table
position. These values indicate a large, but at present not used potential of the irrigation system. The alluvial soils in the Nida River Valley vary in texture: from sand, sandy loam to clay loam. These soils are domi-nated by sand, but contain enough clay and silt to pro-vide some structure and fertility for water storage – on the day of field study the mean value of water storage in soil was 53 mm (in layer 0–35 cm). Ditches with the total lenght of 7.6 km do not assure proper irriga-tion at this object, because they are shallow, silted with slime and lack proper bed gradient. Water damming was not working and so the hydrotechnical structures did not fulfil their functions. Lack of their systematic conservation is the reason of low soil water resourc-es and surface retention. Proper exploiting and main-tenance of irrigation ditches and weirs can increase surface retention by this object, even to 10 821 m3 of
water, making an important contribution to mitigation of local climate change. Nowadays, a major effort is required to modernize irrigation systems. Systems of open ditches cause decrease or increase of groundwa-ter table level within the limits of the object, allowing its use for better soil moisture. Modernization of ex-isting irrigation networks is one of the effective strat-egies of preventing water losses and optimal usage of water resources in agricultural section and of mitigat-ing the effects of climate change, and also of providmitigat-ing a favourable conservation status of the natural habitats and biodiversity in this area.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank the authorities of the Water Su-pervision in Jędrzejów for shared archival materials.
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ROLA I ZNACZENIE SYSTEMU NAWADNIAJĄCEGO W ZWIĘKSZANIU ZASOBÓW WODNYCH: PRZYPADEK DOLINY RZEKI NIDY
ABSTRACT Cel pracy
W niniejszym artykule przedstawiono rolę i znaczenie systemu nawadniania grawitacyjnego w zwiększaniu zasobów wody glebowej i retencji powierzchniowej w piaszczystych glebach aluwialnych.
Materiał i metody
Badania przeprowadzone na obiekcie Kopernia (64,2 ha) w dolinie rzeki Nidy (powiat pińczowski, wo-jewództwo świętokrzyskie) dotyczyły systemów nawodnień podsiąkowych powstałych w drugiej połowie XX wieku. Do określenia zmian retencji wodnej w glebie na obiekcie zastosowano charakterystyki wodne gleby, takie jak odciekalność i objętość rezerw przejściowych przy różnym położeniu zwierciadła wody gruntowej. W celu określenia retencji powierzchniowej zostały użyte materiały archiwalne (projekt tech-niczny) oraz wykonano badania terenowe (inwentaryzacja rowów, pobór próbek glebowych). Dodatkowo, w laboratorium określono wybrane właściwości fizyko-wodne gleb aluwialnych.
Wyniki i wnioski
Na podstawie przeprowadzonej inwentaryzacji rowów i budowli hydrotechnicznych oraz badań polowych i laboratoryjnych wykazano, że podczas prawidłowego funkcjonowania systemu nawadniania, w glebie mo-głaby zostać zmagazynowana woda w ilości od 42 115,2 m3 do 62 916 m3, a dodatkowo w rowach 10 821 m3
wody jako retencja powierzchniowa. Niektóre systemy irygacyjne mogłyby zostać wykorzystane do powięk-szenia terenów podmokłych, a także do zwiękpowięk-szenia małej retencji wodnej. Jednak takie zmiany wymagałyby znacznych wkładów finansowych i czasu na przeprowadzenie tych dostosowań do aktualnych wymogów polityki wodnej i zmian klimatu.
Słowa kluczowe: zmiany klimatu, retencja glebowa, retencja powierzchniowa, rowy otwarte, systemy
